Drag Queen Story Hour
Mary Quate, Swindon Socialist Party
Imported outrage, plain and simple. That’s what the mob, calling themselves Patriotic Alternative, have been bringing to Swindon these past few weeks.
We can take heart that even after bussing in bigots from all over the country, they were only able to find a dozen people who cared enough to spew hatred outside a harmless ‘drag queen story hour’ theatre event. This motley crew were handily outnumbered ten to one by a counter protest, including members of our own local Socialist Party branch.
Their hate speech would’ve been drowned out by a wave of loud party music interspersed with chants of solidarity, even if any of them had enough brains to figure out how to work their own megaphone.
Show of force to take a stand
Showing up to events like this in force, and proving we are willing to fight for LGBTQ+ people is important, especially when not even the Labour Party is willing to take a stand for trans rights, or anyone else that is being left in the lurch.
The crowd made way to allow the drag queen story hour audience access to the building, before continuing the festival atmosphere during the event itself. Parents, children, and even a drag queen, author and performer Aida H Dee, stepped up to the mic to thunderous applause.
A splendid time was had by all. Well, except maybe a dozen bigots with nothing better to do. Hopefully this makes even one of them rethink why they’re so eager to blame downtrodden minorities for all their problems.
